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Calf's Liver Rolls

Calf's liver slices rolled with sausage or veal, browned, baked with potatoes in a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's Liver Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the liver

  1. Scald the liver.

  2. Remove the skin from the liver.

  3. Season the liver slices with salt and pepper.

Make and roll the filling

  1. Mix the sausage meat or veal with salt, pepper, and any powdered sweet herb except sage.

  2. Add the raw egg to the meat mixture.

  3. Spread the meat mixture over the liver slices.

  4. Roll the liver slices.

  5. Tie the rolls with string.

Brown and bake

  1. Heat enough butter or beef dripping in a frying pan to cover the bottom.

  2. Brown the liver rolls in the hot fat.

  3. Wash the new potatoes.

  4. Place the browned liver rolls in an earthen baking dish with the potatoes.

  5. Stir the flour into the frying pan.

  6. Brown the flour in the pan.

  7. Gradually stir in the boiling water.

  8. Season the gravy with salt and pepper.

  9. Pour the gravy over the liver and potatoes in the baking dish.

  10. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are done.

  11. Serve hot in the same dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Forms the main body of the rolls and gives a rich, savoury flavour when browned.
Sausage meat or chopped raw veal
Adds moisture and a tender, binding filling around the liver.
Raw egg
Helps bind the meat filling so it holds its shape around the liver.
Flour
Browned in the pan fat and boiled water to thicken the gravy.
New potatoes
Absorb the gravy as they bake, becoming soft and flavourful.

The step that matters

Brown the flour in the pan. Cooking flour in fat until it turns golden removes raw starchy taste and builds nutty flavour before the liquid is added, and stirring in the boiling water quickly prevents lumps.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper, meat, egg, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, meat, egg, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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